One Day
by Loony Black
Summary: Steve is badly injured in battle. Thor don't feel like simply accepting it. - Oneshot Steve/Thor (Thundershield) Pre-slash, no porn, sorry, just fluff in this one!


**AN:** Hi, my name is Loony and I have a problem with multishipping. xD No, I didn't abandoned Lost and Found, on contrary: I'm waiting my beta to give back the chapters I wrote so I can publish them. Whilst, have some Steve/Thor pre-slash. Much probably I'll add a smut later, but I can't be sure.

Hope you like this little thing - it's unbeta'd, sorry. But there's some hurt/comfort, friendship and lightning. =}

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Black and green, it was all he could distinguish as his legs went wobbly. His knees hit the ground but he felt no pain, no bruise at all, just the impact that shook his strong body. His hands went right after in the very last tentative of not face-crush the ground, his fists getting all the weight of his soft body. It was black, all those stains in his sight, and the world for some weird reason got green whilst his body gave up.

Unfortunately his mind didn't. It was one of the unique moments where Steve would rather pass out than staying conscious because staying conscious at that moment was plain and simple torture; he laid chest down, his face turned to the side, not being able to open his eyes but he could still feel the floor trembling as Hulk smashed his fists against the tanks, the Widow's war shouts as she invested against the enemies, the smell of the rainy clouds Thor summoned involuntarily.

His team needed him. They were under a military attack from a still unnamed organization with fascist objectives in a small town of Nevada, basically in the desert. Then he got hit by something that flew from a helicopter Hulk smashed and all his strength was gone. He felt a lot of ribs had been broken and maybe he cracked his skull, just maybe; soon enough it would all regenerate and rebound and he was going to be as good as ever. But he didn't have the time to wait.

His team needed him and he failed. He felt tears slipping to his hair following gravity as he commanded his body to move and get up but get none response. A thunder so loud and sudden surprised him – and not only him, by the shouts of the enemies – when someone landed hard next to him.

"Fellow of mine!" Thor's unmistakable voice followed soon as he knelt beside the numb face of the soldier. "Are you with me? You shall not fall, you mustn't give up, Captain."

_I won't_, he wanted to say_, I don't want to_, but no voice would come out, no movement of his lips would obey him. Now he could feel and hear the cracks and rips of his bones trying desperately to get back together and _that _was pain. Only because of the excruciating feeling Steve's body decided to react with a scream that made Thor shiver.

"Steven Rogers…" Thor had not a single idea of what to do, afraid of touching the soldier when it was clear something was wrong with his back. And it was _moving,_ Thor realized with a wince of horror, by itself.

For something that bloody pain was good for, for it took Steve from his stupor. He tried to move his arms to raise himself from the floor, screaming again when the motion failed and something else ached horribly_. God, just let me die_, he caught himself thinking, _let me die but protect my friends. I failed them._

"You failed no one, mate. You are a fighter, one of the greatest warriors I ever knew! You will not give up!" The god smashed his own fist in the floor angry for his own impotence. He was no healer, no Midgardian doctor, he was terrified of hurting a man he valuated so highly but… He had to do something. "Stay strong, my friend." Thor murmured next to his face and his tender tone made Steve open his watery eyes, grateful for having someone there for him one day of his life.

Another scream was ripped out of the soldier's chest when Thor turned him onto his back and picked him up from the ground like a baby. Steve automatically curled himself in the god's chest, clenching his teeth while trying to scream no more, the pain making him shudder. When he opened his eyes again, he was _flying._

"It was necessary to remove you from the battle, Captain." Thor explained managing to let the hammer guide him without letting his friend go. A faint _no_ came out of the soldier's lips and Thor knew too well what he meant. It was the lament of a warrior leaving his companions behind. "This was necessary. The Helicarrier is still too far and you must not suffer another blow."

He tried to land them carefully but the impact made Steve growl again and Thor let him onto the dusty ground more gently than he would have done with a maiden. They were now distant from the battle, enough to be safe but still able to hear its sounds and Steve was drowned in the agony of leaving his team behind. That perhaps ached more than his broken bones.

"Go back." He held the scaled sleeve of Thor's clothing, every piece of metal burying itself on his hand as he closed his fist. "You can. You have to go back and fight with them." He could laugh at the lost and almost childish expression in Thor's face if it was funny, not tragic. "I'll be fine."

Thor knew what must be done, being experienced in the field, he would be a great loss to the team if he remained there. But his soften heart would not allow him to go and that was not the first time it happened. He was so easily fond of his mates, so stupidly sentimental, as Loki would said, he knew that feeling too well. The Norse ended up sitting next to his leader and getting a small leather bag he carried at his back, under the crimson cape.

"I shall return, Captain, once my duty here is done. Leaving you here by yourself would be treacherous." Steve tried his best to ignore the disturbing movements and the pain in his body but he caught himself clinging to Thor's forearm like a little boy. He was dying, he knew it, but the serum wouldn't allow as it should happen naturally. The battle inside his cells was as fierce as the one putting up a show in the clouds of dust among the desert.

"There's nothing you can do." He found Thor's eyes again and smiled forcefully. "You would help them more. Don't make me command you, Thor." Thor took something from the bag and freed his arm from his mate's grip, even though remorse hit him as he did. He smiled to his captain to try to incentive him as he handed a small piece of a golden something Steve had no idea what it was.

"I will leave, I promise you. Shall you eat this, I will take my leave, Captain America." Steve managed to grab the object glad he could fight the pain the movement provoked. "This is half of a golden apple I carry around when I'm in Midgard. The golden apples concede to Asgardians vital force, stamina and longer life time than you mortals could conceive. But such a small part will be enough to help your healing and maintain you healthy for some while."

Taking a second glance, that golden thing really looked like a apple cut in half and Steve let his eyebrows up as he tasted the fruit slowly without thinking twice. He had to live and Thor had to return to the battle; if eating that weird thing would do the job, than he was more than glad to oblige. The fruit tasted wonderful, better than any ordinary apple Steve had ever proved, and a smile spread itself in his face as he swallowed the last bite.

It was like… Life. Powering him from inside out, running into his veins, flooding his heart and brain. _Life_, pure and simple, taking him away from the pain and the remorse for failing. Life, golden as the sun, awaking him and making him open the eyes he didn't even knew he had closed, ripping him from the daydream he didn't knew he was having.

His back still hurt when he made the effort to sit, the task much less terrible than it should have been. Thor stared him anxiously, heart thumping, stormy clouds smelling like the rain Nevada had never seeing upon their heads. Every second from every minute Steve spent laid there, closed eyes and barely breathing inflicted the Norse's heart in a different affliction, a worse agony. It was torture, to see one of the most valued men he knew, one of the bravest warriors, one of his… Most cherished mates like that.

Steve blinked for a few moments before smiling again. It felt strangely good to have Thor looking after him, waiting him, _fearing_ for him. The worry in the thunderer's eyes somehow made him sigh. His hand held one of Thor's and it amazed the soldier for one second how big they were.

"Thank you." The Norse god opened his lips to say something that never went out. Steve looked down for a moment. "You saved me."

"It was my honor, Captain." Thor finally said, deep in some thought for long minutes. "It is a privilege to serve and fight by your side. To leave you alone here would be comparable to leave an arm."

Steve felt the blush creep up from his neck to his cheeks before he could fight it. He knew how it was to be loyal to another soldier, to have a great friend, but that was not quite it was looking like. That was not quite how he felt about Thor, despite the fact he refused to give it greater attention.

A loud crack sounded in the American's back again and it looked like the last thing it was missing to be with everything in the right place. A flash of pain made him tighten the grip in Thor's hand with more force than he should and if Thor was not a god, he would be bloody sure to have broken his fingers.

Thor's reaction was to press closer and hold Steve's shoulder carefully, worried that perhaps the golden apple didn't had the effect he expected or it interacted badly with the captain's different body. He was constantly told that Steve had passed through some kind of science experiment and his body functioned differently from the others, but Thor never had the courage to directly ask the soldier what and how that was. He had learned better than to cross some limits without invitation.

Steve has breathing heavily when the pain was gone. He left Thor's hand go, noticing the proximity of the other men's face, and gulped resisting the wish to collapse into Thor's arms and slip away from that horrid experience.

"Sorry. I think now it's over." Thor smiled and Steve caught himself looking at his white teeth and nice lips, feeling bothered with the notion Thor had nice lips.

"Hopefully, my friend. But do not move yourself into battle again, for we know not if you are in perfect health yet. I must return, however, as I promised you." Thor started moving away and one of the soldier's hands moved to grip the god's neck as if powered by itself, making him stop. There was some expectancy and some amusement in Thor's eyes and Steve felt suddenly appalled with his inexplicable motion, stammering before getting real words out of his mouth.

"Thank you… I appreciate you spent one of your golden apples with me, you didn't had to. You…" He knew there was something stuck in his throat, he knew he was not completely okay. He knew no one would be after that rush of pain, agony, death and life messing with his head and his feelings. He knew it just as well as he could feel Thor's warm skin under his fingers and just as well as he knew he liked that. "You were… Kind."

Thor refrained from embracing his mate for fear of hurting his back more - or again. One day, perhaps, he would tell Steve how much he admired and cherished him. How much he felt like he understood the confusion of the adaptation, the feeling of being torn between two worlds, the loneliness. _One day_. He smiled as he grabbed the huge hammer and held Steve's arm for a moment before standing up.

"My kindness only goes to those who deserve it, Captain." Steve couldn't help but smile back as Thor swing his hammer getting ready to shout to the sky. "I must send the Helicarrier to find you the minute it flash in the battlefield, mate. Stay strong."

"You too, my friend." His blue eyes followed the god disappearing from his view into the mix of fire and red dust the battle became. Steve tried to motion himself to stand up and maybe walk to the center of the fight but his spine protested and he left himself lie in the dirt, thinking of Thor.

Despite the lightning and thunders, the drops of rain felt warm on his face.


End file.
